Garchen Rinpoche

The Eighth Garchen Rinpoche (Tib. མགར་ཆེན་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་, ), also called Garchen Triptrul Rinpoche (Tib. མགར་ཆེན་ཁྲི་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་, ), is a Tibetan Buddhist teacher in the Drikung Kagyu lineage. Born April 1936 in Nangchen, Kham, and given the ordination name of Könchok Gyaltsen (Tib. དཀོན་མཆོག་རྒྱལ་མཚན་, ). There he was recognized by Drikung Kyabgon Zhiwe Lodro, the 36th throne holder of the Drikung Kagyu lineage, where he was instructed by Siddha Chime Dorje

When he was 22 he was imprisoned by the Chinese for 20 years and put in a labor camp. who became his root guru. Khenpo Munsel was a Nyingma master who taught him during the whole 20 years of his imprisonment. During that time, while enduring the labor camp hardships, Garchen Rinpoche kept on practicing in secret,

Garchen Rinpoche first came to North America in 1997, teaching in Canada and the United States. One of his first teachings in the United States was based on the mahamudra writings and instructions of the founder of the Drikung lineage and his quintessential mind teachings.

Current activities and expertise Garchen Rinpoche is the founder and spiritual director of the Garchen Buddhist Institute in Chino Valley, Arizona, and teaches throughout North America, Asia, and Europe. Starting in 2020, because of his age, Rinpoche stopped traveling to different Dharma centers all over the world, and retired at his main seat, the Garchen Buddhist Institute. He has been giving teachings and holding Dharma events there since then, including online streaming for these.

Rinpoche is a master of , the fivefold practice Mahamudra, the Six Yogas of Naropa, and the preliminary practices (Tib. ). He widely promotes Thogme Zangpo's Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva and White Tara practice.